Radiation Leaking Into Sea
via channelnewsasia.com
/ February 25, 2015 / The operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima
nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found a pool of highly
contaminated water on the roof of a plant building and that it had
probably leaked into the sea through a gutter when it rained.The finding comes four years after a massive earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc’s Fukushima reactors, and 1-1/2 years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured the International Olympic Committee that radiation leaks at the plant were “under control”.
Tokyo’s victory over rivals Madrid and Istanbul to host the 2020 Olympic Games followed soon after Abe’s declaration.
Tokyo Electric said it has been aware since last spring that radiation levels in water running in one of the plant gutters rise when it rains but had confirmed the source of the contamination only on Tuesday.
Leakage of contaminated water into the sea in and of itself does not violate regulations because the outflow of radiation from the plant is controlled by monitoring radiation levels in sea water, a Nuclear Regulation Agency official said.
There have been no meaningful changes in radiation levels in sea water nearby, Tokyo Electric said.
The electric utility believes gravel and blocks laid on the roof of the building are the source of contamination, and said it plans to remove them by the end of March and take other measures to stop rainwater from being contaminated.
Sample rainwater collected at one corner of the rooftop contained 23,000 becquerels per litre of cesium 137, more than 10 times as high as radiation levels in sample water taken from other parts of the roof, Tokyo Electric said.
Crippled Japanese nuclear plant likely leaking radioactive water into sea
Toshifumi Kitamura / AP
A
construction worker walks beside the underground water tanks at the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Okuma in Fukushima prefecture,
Japan.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, also came under fire Monday for not disclosing earlier that the number of plant workers with thyroid radiation exposures exceeding thresholds for increased cancer risk was 10 times what it said earlier.
The delayed announcements underscored the criticisms the company has faced over the Fukushima crisis. TEPCO has been repeatedly blamed for overlooking early signs and covering up or delaying the disclosure of problems and mishaps.
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Company spokesman Masayuki Ono told a regular news conference that
plant officials have come to believe that radioactive water that leaked
from the wrecked reactors is likely to have seeped into the underground
water system and escaped into the sea.Nuclear officials and
experts have suspected a leak from Fukushima Dai-ichi since soon after a
huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered a crisis at the
plant. Japan's nuclear watchdog said two weeks ago a leak was highly
suspected and ordered TEPCO to examine the problem.
TEPCO via EPA
A
photo made available by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) shows the
extraction of contaminated water from a manhole at the crippled
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Japan.
Ono said plant officials believe a leak is possible because the underground water levels in suspected areas fluctuate in accordance with tide movements and rainfall.
"We are very sorry for causing concerns. We have made efforts not to cause any leak to the outside, but we might have failed to do so," he said.
Ono said the radioactive elements detected in water samples are believed to have come largely from initial leaks that have remained since earlier in the crisis. He said the leak has stayed near the plant inside the bay, and officials believe very little has spread farther into the Pacific Ocean.
Marine biologists have warned that the radioactive water may be leaking continuously into the sea from underground, citing high radioactivity in fish samples taken near the plant.
Most fish and seafood from along the Fukushima coast are barred from domestic markets and exports.
Ono said that an estimated 1,972 plant workers, or 10 percent of those checked, had thyroid exposure doses exceeding 100 millisieverts — a threshold for increased risk of developing cancer — instead of the 178 based on checks of 522 workers reported to the World Health Organization last year.
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